Thoughts of a naive, yet hopeful college student....
I had to read this amazing book for one of my classes. It's called "In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong" by Amin Maalouf. The first half of this book is about identity and what that word means. Maalouf talks about how complex each person’s identity is and how the more parts you add to your own identity, the more unique it becomes. The second half of this book is how identity affects our world. The part that I found the most striking is Maalouf writes about how it is not surprising that we have so much animosity and war in our world because of the way some people view their identities. People of certain religious groups, ethnicities, etc. decide to put their one identity at the forefront and leave the rest behind. They prioritize certain parts of their identity over others and need to feel as though they belong. When they feel that identity is threatened, through globalization, or just insulting their way of life, defending it, many times with violence, seems like the best option to these people.
Reading this book got me to thinking, why is it that we prioritize certain parts of our identities? If people really feel the need to belong, they don’t need to turn to religion, ethnicity, their favorite sports team, gender, clubs they belong to. These may all be important parts of their identity, but why not put human being first? Screw being Muslim or Jewish, black or white, male or female. What does it matter? We all inhabit the same planet so why can’t that be the identity that we place first? I am not saying that all of the other parts of a person’s identity are not important because believe they are. They are what make each person unique and different from any other person on the planet. Regardless of how different we all may be, get over it and embrace your humanity. Then everyone might just be fighting for the same cause.
Anyway, read the book. It’s short, but really well written and stirring.
Thanks for sharing Val...
I'd like to check out this book myself. Interesting theory. Good synopsis by the way. But just because you're insightful, does not mean you're no longer a slut. Love you.
I'd suggest that the reason
I'd suggest that the reason identity is so important is that people through the ages have linked the existence of a tribe (religion, ethnicity, whatever) to their sense of immortality. If my tribe goes on and survives then in a way I will live forever. When you attack the tribe, you attack continuity and foreverness (is that a word?). Unfortunately, humanity has not yet formed a single cohesive tribe. Maybe we need to be invaded by ETs or something.
Why...
...do people wear makeup...the latest clothes...go to certain restaurants...root for their sports teams. It's about belonging from the day we're born. Like the song from "Cheers"..."I wanna go where everbody knows my name."
Identity
I'm intrigued by the idea of the book. I recently studied identity in class. The type of identiy development seems to be related to foreclosure which deals with the process of developing an identity without really considering the significance of such a decision nor experimenting with other ideas. I like your idea of finding better ways of identifying yourself but believe such identity has as much to do with defining the world around you as it does with defining your own identity. We depend so much on defining the situations we go through in life through such identities that taking away such identifications would make understanding our social world difficult. I think conformity has a lot to do with such understandings. I don't think conformity is as bad as people make it out to be. Together people have gained much more than apart and conformity has a lot to do with that. I think it's more important to understand our identities and why we do or do not conform certain identities to the masses. People need to question more and take other sides but in the end sometimes it is necessary to define ourselves as a catholic to understand the jewish religion, or as a male to understand a female. Anyway, I hope to get the chance to read the book. It sounds good from your description.
GREAT SIGHT
The next period in Pakistan’s history begins with the defeat of Raj Jaipal and his son Anandpal, rulers of northern areas of Pakistan, and of the Ismaili and Carmathian rulers of southern areas i.e., Multan and Sind at the hands of Mahmud Ghaznavi, leading to isaca braindumps the unity of the two region. Eleventh century ushered in an era of Muslim rule over the entire length and breadth of Pakistan. During the 32 years of his rule Mahmud invaded Pakistan and India more emc braindumps than 17 times and though he carried his successful arms up to Muthra, Kanauj, Baran and Gawaliar, he did not annex any area beyond Ravi. As such, Pakistan continued to remain separate from India, again looking westward constituting a part of the Ghaznavi Empire. The boundaries also were almost the same which had been coming down from the days of the Indus Valley Civilization. It will be notice that isc bootcamp this phenomena of Pakistan forming a separate country with its eastern boundaries running upto either Ravi, Beas or Sutlej has been recurring again and again.